Antarctica & South America

Today is the day we can check something off Scott's bucket list - Machu Picchu!!!
This morning we got up very early to board our train to the base town right below Machu Picchu. It was about an hour and a half ride. The train goes all along the Urubamba River that runs through the area from the snow and ice that melts off the mountains. It was so rough and full of huge granite stones, you could never have a boat on it. Left the train and met our local guide, Julio, and then we boarded the bus that took us up the switchback road to Machu Picchu. The bus winds very slowly along a one lane road up to the Machu Picchu. Our guide was excellent and has been taking tours through for many years.
We took 2 circuits (routes). The combination of these 2 took us through all of the Machu Picchu structures, terraces and views. In all we spent 5 and half hours walking through the site. The stone site that is always in pictures is the area that the Incas built as their city. It was built over 100 years between 1420 and 1530. It was a working community of and Inca tribe, containing a royal residence and multiple sites of worship to the 'gods'. They believe that the condor was the god of the air, puma the god of the land and the snake the god of the underworld. They were excellent architects, engineers and astronomers as we would call them today. The city is built between two mountains, Machu Picchu (old peak) and Huayna Picchu (young Peak) and contained about 500 people when it was active. The architecture and construction of the granite walls is amazing and how they engineered all the stones to fit together so perfectly you can't put a piece of paper or anything between them. They have no mortar and are built on an angle to support all the tiers and apply pressure to keep the structure from falling down the mountain. The stones are quarried using from the mountain they sit on.
So basically they took the top of the mountain and quarried it to build the structures below. The stones are broken into the sections by pounding wooden wedges into the fractures and wetting them with water, then the boulder splits into smaller stones as the wood expands then they could chisel with harder iron stones. There were irrigation channels build of stones with a groove in them to channel the water. The terraces were for farming to support the city with food. Many of the structures were storage houses for food harvested. The trapezoid windows allows the breeze from the mountain to keep the storage areas cool and preserve the food for winter. There were living quarters the also had windows for ventilation and light. Everything is at an angle to provide pressure and support since they have had earthquakes in the area.
There were also temples and shrines built to honor astrology and their beliefs. There was the Temple of the Moon that had stones filled with water that reflect the moon through precise windows one day of the year. The Temple of the Sun that has stones on the floor that are illuminated on one day of the year. And the Temple of the Condor that has a stone carved into the floor to represent the condor that watches over the world above. It is just amazing that they could build such precise stone temples with something that happens one day a year. It was also to help them gauge the seasons for planting, harvest and winter. Our guide at one point took out a compass and the terrace we were walking on was exactly a straight line between Machu Picchu at the south and Huayna Picchu at the north. Walking through the city was just an amazing and awe inspiring experience of ancient architecture, religion, astronomy and planning. They had no paper and to guide the building of the structure they made models out of clay to guide the stone masons.
How did an ancient civilization develop all this knowledge and skill? It is just hard to believe, but here it is, all preserved in stone. Back down at the base town, before we boarded the train to go back to Sacred Valley we walked thru the market stalls, bought a Machu Picchu coffee mug. Then boarded the train. Met up with our driver in Sacred Valley and he drove us for about 2 hours to Cusco to check into our hotel. We were surprised, in the lobby of the hotel was Mery, the owner and founder of Kuoda Travel and Lucas, the Cusco Supervisor for Kuoda. They were there to thank us for travelling with them and to give us a gift. Two coffee mugs hand made by a local artist. Our hotel was the Cusco Novotel, which was originally a colonial mansion built in the 1800's. What along , amazing day!!!Read more